20 Days, 20 Copies, 20 Winners

Twenty lucky individuals will receive a rare, signed copy of New York Times best-seller Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption, written by Laura Hillenbrand, a person with CFS and an Association supporter.

Hillenbrand is also the author of Seabiscuit: An American Legend and “A Sudden Illness,” a seminal account of life with CFS, published in The New Yorker in 2003. Because Hillenbrand does not generally do booksignings, her signature in these copies of Unbroken makes them collector’s items.

The winners of the “20/20 Bonus” contest were randomly selected from among 294 individuals who made gifts to The Catalyst Fund to support the Association’s research program in the 20-day period between Dec. 21, 2011, and Jan. 9, 2012. Donors were required to donate at least $100 to be eligible and received one entry for each hundred-dollar increment; the Association received 2,736 entries and the donations made during that period totaled $281,636.

“We are deeply grateful to Laura and her continuous support of the Association through the years. Her generous offer to sign these books is especially meaningful, given her limited energy, and we hope these 20 recipients will be as pleased to receive the copies of Unbroken as we are to give them,” says Kimberly McCleary, the Association’s president & CEO. “We’re also thankful for their contributions to The Catalyst Fund and to helping build momentum in our year-end giving campaign. The grand total of more than $1.2 million will support the next phase of our research program and we look forward to sharing news of our progress over the coming months.”

The winners are:

Sharon Atherton

Jeff and Linda Blum

Melissa Boyer

Jonathan Brandt

Carol and Andy Chaikovsky

Julie Decker

Fran B. Grant

Marc Iverson

L. Niederhauser

Elizabeth and Robert Peele

Robert Radovich

Marc O. Simon

Janet True, MD

Terry K. Westerman

David Wimberley

Five winners prefer to remain anonymous. Thank you to all the individuals, families, foundations and companies who support The Catalyst Fund and the Solve ME/CFS Initiative .